Author Archives: Michelle Castillo

Nine-year-old Will Magid had a trumpet and dream: to play like his idol Louis Armstrong. About 10 years later, with his friends Dan Marschak on keyboards and Aaron Leibowitz on saxophone, Magid would form The Goop with one mission in mind ““ to make instrumental jazz music understandable and enjoyable for the masses. Named as […]

Ska may be dead, but its fans are refusing to accept the fact. On Friday, the Aquabats and Streetlight Manifesto performed at the El Rey Theatre. Like many of the recent ska shows in the L.A. area, the concert had been sold out for weeks prior to the event. The dress code consisted of black-and-white […]

Richard Thompson found it strange that Playboy magazine would ask him to compile a list of the 10 best songs of the last 1,000 years. But he decided to fulfill the request anyway. Taking the prompt literally, he started his list with an Italian ballad from 1068. Although the Playboy staff did not find the […]

They came from the Hill, from the apartments on Landfair Avenue and from their homes in their suburban neighborhoods. Some had waited over six hours in line for reserved seating, while others desperately tried to find an extra ticket for the sold-out event. Whether it was because the Gershwin Award winner was rumored to be, […]

Aside from the Ying Yang Twins’ “Wait (The Whisper Song),” Asian-Americans have been conspicuously absent from the hip-hop scene. Meet fourth-year Asian American studies and economics student David “FD” Nguyen. He’s made it his life mission to educate the world about the fact that not all fit in a cookie-cutter mold. Nguyen’s main method of […]

Rock stars have always been larger than life. But thanks to the silver screen, that size is becoming literal. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the band Andrew W.K. will celebrate the release of its concert movie, “Andrew W.K.: Who Knows?” with a double feature ““ a movie screening in Hollywood’s The Knitting Factory followed by a […]